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HAWAIIAN ANNEXATION. 



AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: VIGOROUS, PROGRESSIVE, 
AND HUMANE. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. WILLIAM ALDEN SMITH, 



OP MICHIGAN, 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

Wednesday, June 15, 1898. 



W ASHINGTON. 

1898. 
J».u.S. 






68607 



f 



SPEECH 

OF 

HON. WILLIAM ALDEX SMITH. 



Oil the joint resolution i'H. Res. 2o9) to provide for annexing the Hawaiian 

Islands to the United States. 

Mr. WILLIAM ALDEN SMITH of Michigan said: 

Mr. Speaker: It is with some misgiving and trepidation that I 
rise toward the close of this discussion, so full of interest and en- 
lightenment. I do not take part, however, with any expectation 
of affecting the vote soon to be taken, but solely for the purpose 
of reflecting public sentiment in the district which I have the 
honor to represent and to discharge my duty as a Representative 
upon this floor. 

Through four sessions of Congress I have willingly followed the 
wise leadership with which we are favored, and in much of my 
public work have been blessed with the wisdom and experience of 
older Members, whose right to lead has been earned by long and 
faithful service in legislative affairs. 

Even now, were the latitude less circumscribed and the subject 
under discussion less important, I would not venture to take the 
time of the House, but as a member of the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs, charged with the preliminary responsibility for this legis- 
lation, I owe a duty to you, which it shall be my privilege to per- 
form. 

Our action to-day will mark a new era in national affairs. God 
grant that it may be wisely performed, and that the century now 
closing may lose none of Its luster thereby, and the proud and 
honorable achievements of our country may be made more secure 
and enduring by our legislation of to-day. 

11 The world will little note nor long remember ,; the petty strug- 
gles of individuals for honor and place, but in the world's grand 
pageantry of glorious and progressive enlightenment, along whose 
fitful highway nations travel in their onward march, these epochs 
constitute the century marks upon eternity's dial. 

Not a determined navigator upon unknown seas, not a faithful 
explorer in darkness and gloom, not a struggling genius whose 
mind, clogged with cumbersome detail, finally bursts into practical 
invention, not a sturdy pioneer in the march of progress, who has 
not builded better than he knew. 

Perhaps, sir— who can say nay?— we are building better than we 
know for the future grandeur and greatness of America. 

The important question of Hawaiian annexation is not new to 
the count ry. Nearly fifty years ago our Government undertook 
negotiations for its annexation, and the American minister to 
Hawaii was at that time instructed that we were ready to receive 
the formal transfer of the territorial sovereignty of the islands, 
and there has never been a time since when important negotia- 
tions were not pending for their absorption into the Union. 
3102 ;>, 



Why have we delayed? Through whose instrumentality have 
we been influenced? 

With a constancy horn of sincere desire, this little group of 
Pacific pearls have maintained their friendship for us through 
strife, revolution, and disaster, refusing alliances from others, 
helpful and honorable. 

Four times she has been seized in eighty years— once by Russia, 
once by England, and twice by France. Hostile demonstrations 
upon her own part and the threatening attitude of our country 
caused her release. Finally, for fear and in dread of conquest, 
the absolute cession of her sovereignty to the United States was 
executed and delivered in 1851, and a treaty was negotiated in 
1854. 

Mr. Speaker, there is not a nation in the world that does not 
recognize the importance of the Hawaiian Islands to the United 
States. Are we blind to our interests when the disinterested 
vision of others is so clear? Will we longer neglect this plain 
duty, now so near consummation? 

For one, let me say that no obstacle is too great to be overcome 
in the definite and distinct purpose of this hour, and the weak 
and foolish prejudices of men have no terror whatever for me in 
the performance of plain public duty. 

Long before the independence of America from England, the 
question of island ownership was one of the utmost importance 
among European nations. With an eye to the extension of her 
trade and commerce, every island in the Atlantic Ocean, the Ca- 
ribbean Sea, and the Gulf , which they could trade for or easily con- 
quer, has been brought under the English flag, It is not my 
purpose to criticise this upon her part, for I believe it to have 
been wise, farsighted, and sagacious, and worthy of emulation. 

Is it not essential that we should be vigilant as to our true in- 
terests at this point? Would it not be wise to seize the opportu- 
nity presented to us by Providence and the logic of our national 
fate? 

It has been urged that we have no constitutional power to 
annex new territory. In what line of the Federal Constitution is 
this prohibited? Who knew more than Thomas Jefferson or 
Gouverneur Morris, whose pens put the Constitution into form, 
about the meaning and the purpose of this instrument in the mat- 
ter of territorial acquisition? At the time of the Louisiana pur- 
chase Morris wrote, "No decree de crescendo emperio," especially 
emphasizing the fact that limitations were not inserted in the in- 
strument, because no boundaries could be safely assigned to our 
future extension; and he further says: 

" I knew as well then as I do now that all North America must 
at length be annexed to us. Happy indeed if the lust of possession 
stop there." 

While the great Jefferson, whose fertile mind is reflected in so 
much of our Constitution, wrote, in reply to the letter of Gal- 
latin, regarding the Louisiana purchase: 

"There is no constitutional difficulty as to the acquisition of 
territory, and whether when acquired it may be taken into the 
Union by the Constitution as it now stands, will become a ques- 
tion of expediency." 

The turning point in that great question of territorial aggran- 
dizement was solved upon the question of whether or not our 
young Government wanted a portion of its contiguous soil occu- 
pied by the French— whether we wanted to take the chances of a 

31G2 



Napoleon at the head of a French army ascending the Missis- 
sippi River to reconquer, if possible, a new world; and Jefferson, 
out of the wisdom of his experience and the courage of his con- 
viction, made a purchase which the American people have ap- 
proved every moment since it was consummated; and never in 
the history of the Republic was fifteen millions of American 
money better invested to secnre wise territorial addition and to 
secure the peace of our border. 

When Spain offered to this Government the Floridas, or at 
least a quitclaim of her title and pretensions, in 1819, the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, called upon soon thereafter to 
define our relation to the new acquisition, held, to the great sur- 
prise of some of the strict constructionists of the Constitution, that 
the right of the United States to wage war and to make treaties 
necessarily implied the right to acquire new territory, whether by 
conquest "or purchase. This decision came from our greatest 
Chief Justice, John Marshall, and has been repeatedly affirmed by 
his successors upon the bench. (See 136 U. S. Rep. . 1-42. ) 

While Chief Justice Taney, in the celebrated Dred Scott deci- 
sion, said: 

"We do not mean, however, to question the power of Congress 
in this respect. The power to expand the territory of the United 
States by the admission of new States is plainly given; and in the 
construction of this power by all the departments of the Govern- 
ment it has been held to authorize the acquisition of territory, not 
fit for admission at the time, but to be admitted as soon as its 
population and situation would entitle it to admission. It is ac- 
quired to become a State, and not to be held as a colony and gov- 
erned by Congress with absolute authority; and as the propriety 
of admitting a new State is committed to the sound discretion of 
Congress, the power to acquire territory for that purpose, to be 
held by the United States until it is in a suitable condition to 
become a State upon an equal footing with other States, must 
rest upon the same discretion, It is a question for the political 
department of the Government, and not the judicial; and what- 
ever the political department of the Government shall recognize 
as within the limits of the United States the judicial department 
is also bound to recognize, and to administer in it the laws of the 
United States, so far as they apply, and to maintain in the terri- 
tory the authority and rights of the Government, and also the 
personal rights and rights of property of individual citizens, as 
secured by the Constitution." 

In 183G there came an application from the Republic of Texas 
for admission into the Union as a new and equal State. The dom- 
inant population there had always been composed of emigrants 
from the United States. President Adams had tried to purchase 
it from Mexico in 1827; while Andrew Jackson offered $5,000,000 
for it in 1835. A year later Texas claimed to have achieved her 
independence, and sent commissioners to Washington to negotiate 
a treaty of annexation. Mexico had not relinquished her claims 
of ownership, and our Government delayed recognition until 
Texas had proven its ability to defend its separate existence and 
diplomatic relations had been established between that independ- 
ent Republic and the United States, and many European powers. 

In 1838 John Quincy Adams introduced in the House of Repre- 
sentatives a resolution denying the power of the United States to 
annex the people of any independent state into the Union, hold- 
ing that no such authority resided in the Constitution or Govern- 



6 

merit or any department thereof, and that this exercise would be 
an assumption of power unlawful and void, even going so far as 
to hold that if Texas were annexed, it would inevitably result in 
a dissolution of the Union. The situation there presented, the 
resistance offered, and the encouragement given were sharp, tire- 
less, and effective. Nevertheless, sir, in 1844 a treaty of annexa- 
tion was concluded, which the Senate rejected by a vote of more 
than two to one. 

Texas was the issue in the succeeding Presidential election, and 
the Democratic party scored a great and decisive victory, which 
President Tyler promptly ratified by recommending an act of an- 
nexation. The history of that controversy is well known to those 
conversant with public affairs. Congress authorized the erection 
of Texas into a new State of the United States, and President Ty- 
ler promptly affixed his signature to the act of union, and this in- 
dependent Republic, the cause of so much contention in the past, 
entered the Union over anew legislative highway which has been 
blazed so wide and so straight that in the present emergency we 
have a precedent ample indeed. 

. While there can be no question, Mr. Speaker, but that treaty 
making was especially lodged by the Constitution in the President 
and Senate, and that the composition of the Senate was so framed 
that each State should have an equal voice, nevertheless, the exi- 
gencies which at times confront the Republic warn us of the im- 
portance of the popular branch of Congress, coming direct from 
the people; and the Texas precedent has made the votes of a ma- 
jority of both branches of Congress sufficient. 

I am well aware, sir, that Jefferson has expressed doubt as to 
the wisdom of our Government receiving acquisitions which it 
would take a navy to defend, but the necessity for a strong navy, 
able to give absolute security to our commerce upon the sea, has 
forced its way permanently into the public mind. Secretary 
Adams, in his instruction to our minister to Spain, once wrote 
that Puerto Rico was the natural appendage and Cuba had become 
an object of transcendant importance to the commercial and po- 
litical interests of our Union. The commanding position of Puerto 
Rico with reference to theG-ulf of Mexico and the West India seas 
gave to it advantages which could not be easily ignored, while 
Cuba, because of its situation between our southern coast and the 
island of San Domingo, with its splendid harbor at Havana, front- 
ing our shores, almost destitute of the same advantage, its produc- 
tions and its necessities, with mutually profitable commercial ad- 
vantage, gives this territory national interest with no parallel in 
either ocean. At least one President (Polk) has tried to purchase 
it, adding his testimony to the right and ability under the Consti- 
tution for our Government to acquire foreign territory. 

At the close of the Mexican war we paid fifteen million dollars 
for New Mexico and California, while the Gadsden purchase of 
1853 added southern Arizona at a cost of ten millions more. 
These acquisitions, understood and appreciated by the American 
people, have increased our interest at advantageous and desirable 
points. It has stimulated our desire for a canal across the Isth- 
mus, in accordance with the spirit of progress and development 
of the world. 

Nearly fifty years ago the advantages of this project were 

hedged about by diplomatic agreements, which during much of 

the intervening time have been onerous and unacceptable. 

Whether the Clayton- Bui wer Treaty shall be the basis of such an 

3463 



enterprise and its realization I do not care to say in the present 
controversy: but Edward Everett in 1852, referring to one of the 
islands in the G-ulf and the effect that a canal might possibly 
have upon it, said that — 

" Territorially and commercially it would in our hands bean 
extremely valuable possession; under certain contingencies it- 
might be almost essential to our safety." 

While the Ostend manifesto of 1854 emphasized these consider- 
ations quite strongly, that if a final cession can not be accom- 
plished, that conquest of valuable territory might be dictated by 
the law of self-preservation. The interests of the American people 
in properly protecting our Government by the acquisition of for- 
eign territory is reflected upon the statute books to-day, where 
Title LXX1I of the Revised {Statutes expressly lodges in the hands 
of the President the right to acquire foreign territory by right of 
discovery, and to take possession of any guano deposits on any 
island, rock, or key, which does not belong to any other govern- 
ment, expressly providing that such island , rock, or key may, at 
the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to 
the United States. Thus our Government acquired jurisdiction 
over and title to the island of Navassa. two miles long and lying 
between Jamaica and San Domingo, discovered in 1857, and for 
crimes committed upon that island, the courts of the United 
States have in the past assumed jurisdiction and punished the 
offender. 

Mr. Speaker, when President Lincoln recommended to Con- 
gress the advisability of some colonization scheme, he said that 
the plan which he proposed might involve the acquiring of terri- 
tory and also the appropriation of money beyond that to be ex- 
pended in territorial acquisition, adding that — 

''Having practiced the acquisition of territory for nearly sixty 
years, the question of constitutional power to do so is no longer 
an open one with us. * * * On this whole proposition, includ- 
ing the appropriation of money for the acquisition of territory, 
does not the expediency amount to almost necessity, without 
which the Government itself can not be perpetuated? " 

The purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7,200,000 
brought us into possession of large territory remote from our own 
over two thousand miles. The question of contiguity was by this 
act finally and completely abandoned, there being but two votes 
in the Senate against the ratification of the treat}-. 

The same year that marked the extension of our territory by 
the purchase of Alaska marked the negotiations with Denmark 
by Secretary Seward for the cession of the West India islands of 
St. Thomas and St. Johns for a consideration of $5,700,000, and 
President Johnson thus tersely and effectively gives the reasons 
for our course : 

' ' In our Revolutionary war, ports and harbors in the West India 
islands were used by our enemy to the great injury and embar- 
rassment of the United States. We had the same experience in 
our second war with Great Britain. The same European policy 
for a long time excluded us even from trade with the West Indies 
while we were at peace with all nations. In our recent civil war 
their piratical and blockade-breaking allies found facilities in the 
same ports for the work which they were successfully accomplish- 
ing, the injuring and devastating the commerce which we arc 
now engaged in rebuilding. We labored especially under this 
disadvantage, that European steam vessels employed by our cne- 
3163 



8 

mies found friendly protection and supplies in the West India 
ports, while our naval operations were necessarily carried on 
from our own distant shores. There was then a universal feeling 
of the want of advanced naval outposts between the Atlantic 
coast and Europe. The duty of obtaining such an outpost peace- 
fully and lawfully, while neither doing nor menacing injury to 
othsr States, earnestly engaged the attention of the executive de- 
partment before the close of the war, and it has not been lost 
sight of since that time. 

"A not entirely dissimilar naval want revealed itself during the 
same period on the Pacific coast. The required foothold there 
was fortunately secured by our late treaty with the Emperor of 
Russia, and it now seems imperative that the more obvious neces- 
sities of the Atlantic coast should not be less carefully provided 
for. A good and convenient port and harbor, capable of easy de- 
fense, will supply that want. With the possession of such a sta- 
tion by the United States, neither we nor any other American 
nation need longer apprehend injury or offense from any trans- 
Atlantic enemy. I agree with our early statesmen that the West 
Indies naturally gravitate to and may be expected ultimately to 
be absorbed by the continental States, including our own. I agree 
with them also that it is wise to leave the question of such absorp- 
tion to this process of natural political gravitation. The islands 
of St. Thomas and St. Johns, which constitute a part of the group 
called the Virgin Islands, seemed to offer us advantages immedi- 
ately desirable, while their acquisition could be secured in har- 
mony with the principles to which I have alluded." 

Because of the inharmonious relation existing between Presi- 
dent Johnson and the Senate, a treaty for the acquisition of these 
islands was rejected, and the first disturbance of our peace fore- 
shadowed in the recent declaration of war with Spain was suffi- 
cient to call the Senate of the United States into executive session 
for the very purpose of considering the annexation of the Danish 
possessions, undertaken by Secretary Seward and unsuccessfully 
carried on under the Administration of President Grant. 

The question of the annexation of San Domingo did not turn 
upon the wisdom or unwisdom of such a course upon the part of 
this Government; its fate was decided witHin the narrow confines 
of spitefulness and personality, and our action to-day must not 
be supported or opposed by the temporary exigencies of party 
politics. 

As far back as 1843 an English officer, without any authority 
from his Government, took possession of Hawaii in the name of 
the Queen, but England's young Queen, who still, by the grace of 
a generous Providence, occupies the throne, promptly disavowed 
the movement, when Mr. Legare, writing to our minister to Eng- 
land, said that the Hawaiian Islands bore such peculiar relations 
to us that we might feel like interfering by force to prevent their 
acquisition by any of the great powers of Europe. 

Great Britain and France immediately thereafter agreed with 
one another never to take possession of the Islands, or assume a 
protectorate over them. 

Following that, Mr. Marcy, our Secretary of State, in 1853, 
thus addressed our minister to France: 

"It seems to be inevitable that they must come under the con- 
trol of this Government." 

And two years thereafter he informed our minister to Hawaii 

c4C2 



that this Government was ready to receive the formal transfer of 
the territorial sovereignty of the islands; while in 1868 negotia- 
tions were again undertaken, and Secretary Seward, in view of 
his failure io" impress the Senate with the necessity of annexing 
the Danish West Indies, wrote our minister to Hawaii that the 
time for consideration of annexation by the United States was 
not propitious. 

The attempted annexation of these islands by President Harri- 
son is familiar to every citizen of our country, and the course of 
his successor, in withdrawing the treaty then pending in the Sen- 
ate, has been the cause of severe criticism and sharp comment 
ever since. 

However honest President Cleveland may have been, his course 
with reference to this subject, in my opinion, has never met with 
favor among the people. 

Annexation is not new to our country. The area of the United 
States before the Louisiana Purchase consisted of a million square 
miles, according to the estimate of Morse's American Geography, 
while the subsequent acquisition of Louisiana and the Floridas 
doubled our territory, and Texas brought us three hundred thou- 
sand square miles, while Mexico in 1848 and 1853 ceded a larger 
number. 

In Alaska we received in 1867 a large addition, and thus our 
total area has increased, under this policy of territorial acquisi- 
tion and annexation, from a million square miles in 1793 to more 
than three millions five hundred thousand square miles at the 
present time. 

It has been generally supposed that our possessions were large 
enough, but the area of Canada and Newfoundland, owned by 
Great Britain in this hemisphere, excels our own by several 
hundred thousand square miles. 

Under the Clayton-Bulwer treaty we have practically pledged 
our Government against further extensions in South America, but 
in my humble opinion the whole North American continent and 
every island in the gulf and the Caribbean Sea, and such islands 
in the Pacific as may be deemed desirable, are worthy of our ambi- 
tion. Not that we are earth hungry, but, as a measure of national 
protection and advantage, it is the duty of the American people 
to lay peaceful conquest wherever opportunity may be offered. 
[Applause.] 

It has been argued that our Constitution makes no provision 
for a colonial system, but, Mr. Speaker, if President Monroe had 
been merely a lawyer, if he had contented himself by looking for 
precedent which he was unable to find, if he had consulted the 
jurisprudence of his time and planned his action along academic 
lines, the greatest doctrine ever announced to the civilized world, 
which now bears his name, though in unwritten law, but in the 
inspiration, the hope, the security of every American heart, would 
have found no voice potent enough and courageous enough to 
have encircled the Western Hemisphere with his peaceful edict. 

Precedent, sir, may do for a rule of law upon which a fixed and 
definite superstructure must be built, but it is the duty of states- 
manship to cease looking at great public questions with a micro- 
scope, and sweep the world's horizon with a telescope from a 
commanding height. [Applause.] 

Avoid, if you can, sir, by specious reasoning the history of your 
own country, but tell me what precedent Thomas Jefferson relied 
upon when in 1803 he took $15,000,000 out of the Federal treasury 
and purchased Louisiana? 

3462 



10 

This great and worthy act of one of the most enlightened of or.r 
constitutional authors gave to the country a territorj^ which now 
composes the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, 
Nebraska, and Minnesota; west of the Mississippi, Colorado, the 
Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana. 

Naturally it would have been expected that Jefferson would 
have been praised for his courage and foresight. On the contrary, 
he was denounced with bitterness and partisan rancor almost 
unknown in the discussion of our public affairs to-day. 

Notwithstanding the limitations with which he was hedged 
about, Jefferson believed that each generation was competent 
to manage its own affairs, and his peaceful accomplishment in 
1803 was the most important achievement since the Revolution, 
and furnished a precedent by which Florida was purchased in 
1819 for five million dollars, California and New Mexico in 1848 
for fifteen million dollars, Arizona in 1853 for ten million dollars, 
and Alaska in 1867 for seven million two hundred thousand dol- 
lars. The grand total of this territorial investment foots up 
fifty-two million two hundred thousand dollars— a sum so small 
as not even to attract the attention of the House of Representa- 
tives in a days debate, in the present period of our country's 
affairs; and yet the investments made thereby constitute living 
monuments to the statesmanship that foresaw their importance 
and the Americanism that prompted their acquisition. 

The spirited rivalry among nations for trade early found expres- 
sion in the exclusive charter given by Queen Elizabeth to the 
Great East India Company in 1599, and their general monopoly of 
the market from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magel- 
lan was the resultant effect. 

The importance of this company in establishing British suprem- 
acy in the East is well known to every student of history. The 
ostensible object of charity in the Empire of Hindoostan gradu- 
ally brought the entire Empire into the possession of that com- 
pany, thus christening Queen Victoria "Empress of India." 

Who is not familiar with the escapades of Dr. Jamieson and the 
South African Company, who undertook, in the interest of trade 
and conquest, to overthrow the South African Republics and make 
Victoria Queen of Ethiopia. 

Can you read of England's efforts in the Celestial Empire with- 
out detecting the important trend of events? Chinese resistance 
to English opium smugglers opened the way for the English to 
bombard the forts at the mouth of the river and effect an entrance 
to Canton, where an indemnity of $6,000,000 was demanded and 
collected, followed by the siege of Pekin, which netted the English 
Government $21,000,000, and secured for her the cession of Hong- 
kong, thus securing the commerce of southern China, and plac- 
ing herself in position to command the trade of 400,000,000 frugal 
and industrious people. 

Mr. Speaker, territorial and trade conquests are world-wide. 
Russia and England have appropriated the continent of Asia 
from the Indian to the Arctic Ocean, where our trade is one of 
purchase only. The Dutch own the great islands of the Indian 
Archipelago, and England holds the balance, absolutely control- 
ling their commerce. 

We must recognize the fact, sir, that England holds the whole 
of the Australian continent and its neighboring islands, and 
nearly half the area of our own continent. 

Within the last three years the nations of Europe have by 
3463 



11 

mutual agreement divided among themselves the entire area of 
Africa. England has added Egypt to her other African domin- 
ions; France has appropriated a large part of North Africa "be- 
tween Egypt and the Atlantic; all the equatorial region is now 
divided among Italy, England, France, Germany, and Austria. 

South America and the Orient are the natural trade allies of the 
United States. Their relation to us must grow more important 
and desirable in the years to come. Then why talk of an Anglo- 
American alliance? Who is so short sighted as to wish us to 
assume any responsibility, however remote, for the faithful per- 
formance of the multitude of agreements, treaties, and protocols 
of England? To be sure, they are our natural kin, and we are 
proud of our ancestry, but our friendship will be more enduring 
and our burdens easier to bear if we refrain from entangling alli- 
ances with any powers across the sea. Such territory in the ocean 
or in the Gulf as naturally belongs to our Government we can 
make our own in due season, and wisdom would seem to prompt 
us to leave no natural or willing ally, weak and defenseless as it 
may be, to become the mere toy of an aggressive empire, imperil- 
ing our peace and good order. 

The Pacific Ocean, unfettered by European subjugation, can be 
made indeed pacific, if we are wise enough to garner the harvest 
now so ripe for our sickle. 

Who opposes this wise policy that has received the sanction of 
many Presidents? The same halting, hesitating conservatism that 
admonished Washington against taking on the Northwest Terri- 
tory, and prompted Benjamin Franklin to favor its relinquishment; 
the same doubting conservatism that deprived us of Canada in 
the war of 1812, and defeated by a tie vote in the Senate the treaty 
for the annexation of San Domingo. [Applause.] 

Our military school taught Grant the value of strategic points 
of defense and attack. His campaigns were marvels of exact- 
ness and keen perception, executed with prowess and true mili- 
tary genius. His keen appreciation of the advantage of American 
ownership and control of the Island of Santo Domingo was in line 
with his record so amply demonstrated in the field of military 
triumph. He decided that it was wise for the American nation 
to accept this island, freely offered by its inhabitants; he believed 
the acquisition of Santo Domingo to be a strict adherence to the 
Monroe doctrine— a measure of national protection. 

From the formation of our Government it has been important 
that the American nation control, as far as possible, the West 
Indies. Our Presidents have expressed an almost universal desire 
of the people for an advanced naval outpost between the Atlantic 
coast and Europe. The Dominican people longed for a higher 
civilization; they had fought for and established their govern- 
ment against oppression and conquest, just as the Hawaiian 
Republic has since done, and they turned to us as a Mussulman 
turns toward Mecca. The Commission of Inquiry appointed by 
our Government, and of which the honorable chairman of the 
Committee upon Foreign Affairs of this House was identified, 
made a most searching, critical investigation into the condition, 
character, and resources of that island, and reported back that 
the people were courteous, respectful, and polite; that crime was 
comparatively unknown; that no pauper class existed; that intem- 
perance and beggary were more common among the enlightened 
nations of the world; that the resources of the island were vast 
and various, making it one of the most fertile regions on the face 

3162 



12 

of the globe. Fanned by trade winds, the}' were constantly sup- 
plied with pure air from the sea, while the bay of Samana was 
the most important in the West Indies, being 30 miles long and 
10 miles broad, commodious enough to accomodate the largest 
fleets. 

Why did we need this island? For this good and sufficient 
reason — it sits like a sentinel in the Caribbean Sea, guarding the 
Mona Passage, destined to be the eastern avenue of communica- 
tion between two great oceans when the Nicaragua Canal shall 
be an accomplished fact. A trained military eye could appreciate 
the importance of this outpost, and President Grant would have 
made it part of the American Union. How clearly he saw, how 
courageously he acted, and with what patriotism was he inspired! 

Sir, the countries of the Western Hemisphere stand face to face 
with the necessity of dealing with one another as Americans. 
This entire group of magnificent islands is naturally a part of the 
American territory. 

" The West India Sea corresponds to that of the Mediterranean 
from Syria to the Pillars of Hercules. The Mediterranean is di- 
vided into an eastern and western basin, and as Italy, Sardinia, 
and Tunis divide the basin there, so Cuba, Jamaica, Santo Do- 
mingo, and Yucatan divide the Gulf and the Caribbean Sea. As 
the former is fed by the venerable, ancient Nile, so ours is aug- 
mented by the pulsating artery of the Mississippi. The Mediter- 
ranean is a world's sea, lying in the temperate zone, amid an an- 
cient civilization, and our southern basin is destined to be a 
world's sea when an international waterway shall pierce the 
isthmus connecting the Eastern and Western Hemispheres by 
direct and rapid communication." 

This has been the dream of trans- Atlantic thinkers for two hun- 
dred and fifty years. Indeed, its importance was first suggested 
by Charles V after the discovery of America by Columbus, and 
later by Phillip II, to whom Cortez reported that the greatest 
service he could render to the King was to find an opening through 
the Isthmus to the Pacific. 

The idea of constructing a canal through Lake Nicaragua was 
first suggested in 1G65. Thus we see why European countries have 
always been alive to the importance of island ownership in the 
vicinity of the Isthmus. Its construction will raise the islands to 
an importance beyond calculation. A lavish nature, tropical cli- 
mate, and prolific soil have rendered their possession valuable. 
They will be the cause of contention and competition in the future. 

Is it not essential that we should be vigilant as to our true inter- 
ests at this point? Great Britain already holds the keys to navi- 
gation in the West Indies. She owns Jamaica— Cromwell wrested 
it from the Spaniards in 1655, and Kingston is the base of opera- 
tions of the British West India fleet. Her flag floats over the 
Caman Islands, Trinidad, St. Vincent, the Barbadoes, St. Lucia, 
and the Bahamas, as well as the eastern coast of Yucatan and 
British Honduras, all strongly fortified. Spain with dying grasp, 
scarcely felt in her benumbed extremities, clutches at her vanish- 
ing dominion in this hemisphere; but the realization of the hopes 
and desires of humanity everywhere will soon light this dark 
corner of the world with the bright flame of indignant liberty. 
[Applause.] 

France owns the Islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique, lying 
well up toward the Mona Passage; but Santo Domingo rises above 
them all, with special advantages and with special prominence. 

3163 



Had President Grant's fervent wish been granted, our flag 
would to-day wave over the island, and from the folds of its stars 
and stripes, dedicated to liberty and union, would float out over 
the gulf and sea a spirit of patriotism tempering the entire archi- 
pelago. Should it have been accepted when tendered? Then, is 
it not our duty to accept the Hawaiian Islands, situated with ref- 
erence to our own country as advantageously in the Pacific as 
Santo Domingo is at the Gulf? The faintest encouragement would 
have been sufficient for some countries to have encircled these 
islands. And this generation will be unfaithful to those that 
follow if we do not lessen the possibilities of war by taking into 
the National Union such naval outposts in both oceans as are 
naturally a part of our country. [Applause.] 

Mr. Speaker, the United States is a great manufacturing nation ; 
eventually we must find new markets for our energy and enter- 
prise ; such desirable territory is fast passing under the control of 
other nations ; our history is filled with unaccepted opportunities. 
How much longer shall we hesitate ? Is it not time to take new 
observations of the world's affairs, and be guided by more pro- 
gressive enlightenment? Just as the mariner scans the firma- 
ment, when the compass is doubted, and follows the familiar 
planet into his true course, so we, in this new period of the 
world's affairs, should look up from the ledger and receive new 
inspiration and guidance from the movement and course of 
nations with whom we share the world. [Applause.] 

Sir, the proverbial friendship of the great Empire of Russia, 
with its population of nearly a hundred and thirty million people, 
must not be impaired. She is to-day one of the most powerful 
nations of the earth— a devoted, worthy, and unselfish friend to 
our Government. When the fate of this nation was struggling 
in the balance, the Emperor of Russia sent a fleet to our door with 
instructions to conserve the peace at any hazard, should European 
unfriendliness become manifest. ' ' Russia was never so powerful, 
so wealthy, so full of exultant confidence in her destiny; never was 
there such profound peace and general wellbeing within the Em- 
pire; never were her counsels of such weight abroad. The potent 
and patient genius of Alexander III has made Russia the arbiter 
of Europe, as Napoleon once made France, and Bismarck made 
United Germany." We rejoice in her progress, and no alliance 
must be made that will in the slightest degree impair the friend- 
ship we hold most dear. 

Commercial scope — internal improvement— an American for- 
eign policy, vigorous and humane— are the necessary accompani- 
ments of greatness. The annual products of our country amounted 
in 1890 to nearly $14,000,000,000; and is rapidly increasing from 
day to day. In the present fiscal year the balance of trade in our 
favor will be $600,000,000; our exports are double our imports, 
while our total foreign commerce will, upon the 30th of the pres- 
ent month, reach the enormous sum of $1,800,000,000. Our^best 
customers are Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and France. If 
we will take in the Hawaiian Islands, hold on to the Philippines, 
and cultivate good neighborship with the Orient, to which they 
are the key, the expansion of our commerce will be augmented a 
thousandfold, and the artisans, mechanics, and laboring men of 
our own country will then supply much of the genius and the 
handiwork of the whole world, thus realizing the fulfillment of 
the prophecy of Gladstone, who, a few years ago said of our coun- 
try: 

3102 



u 

' ' It is she alone who, at a coming time, can and probably will 
wrest from us that commercial supremacy, we have no title. I 
have no inclination to murmur at the prospect; if she acquires it, 
she will make the acquisition by the right of the strongest, but in 
this instance the strongest means the best. We have no more 
title against her than Venice or Genoa or Holland against us." 

Our manifest destiny is the heritage of mankind; then let us 
neglect no opportunity to strengthen and conserve our proud and 
responsible position. The twentieth century will open upon 
twenty Republics, ours being the first, and perhaps— who knows? 
before another century has gone the world may be crowned with 
a new diadem, sparkling with the jewels of humanity, enthroned 
and elevated, and empowered with the natural and "divine right 
to govern themselves. What then will our position be? ShallVe 
lead by virtue of being the conservator of good government and 
the champion of human rights? or shall we, sordid-like and indif- 
ferent to the welfare of others, content ourselves to live alone and 
apart from the rest of the world? From whom did we receive the 
cup of liberty? From the oppressed and bound of every land. 
Can we, then, refuse to pass this cup to those thirsting for self- 
government, liberty, and peace? No, Mr. Speaker, our duty is 
plain; we must lift up, by example and otherwise, our weak and 
burdened neighbors; we must take them into the Union when 
opportunity offers, thus strengthening ourselves and helping 
those less fortunate. 

The Hawaiian Islands possess advantages in the Pacific which 
can not be ignored; Pearl Harbor is the only great land-locked 
harbor, easily defended, in the Pacific; we have no rights there 
that are not determinable upon one year's notice by either party; 
we should take immediate steps to utilize this great harbor, lying 
at the intersection of the commercial routes from Vancouver to 
Australasia, from the Isthmus of Panama to Japan, and from San 
Francisco to Manila and Hongkong. These watery highways 
mark the course of commerce in the future. More than one-half 
the population of the world is bounded by the Pacific and Indian 
oceans, while the commerce countries bordering these oceans, not 
including North America, amounts to over $2,250,000,000 a year, 
of which we get but a small part. 

' •' Over 80 per cent of our exports go eastward, across the Atlantic, 
and less than 5 per cent westward. We grow 80 per cent of the 
raw cotton in the world, yet with the cheapest power in the world 
and the most efficient labor we have only 15 per cent of the spin- 
dles of the world. China, Japan, Korea, and India are cotton- 
using countries, and with changing conditions there is a market 
worth striving for." Already Russia sees the advantages which 
will accrue to her in the Pacific, and the construction of its trans- 
continental railway from St. Petersburg to the Pacific foreshadows 
her intentions in that rich but long-neglected field. Sir, I favor 
the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, because it will prevent 
the establishment of hostile sovereignty at that advantageous 
point, and will tend to straighten our western border and con- 
serve its peace. [Applause.] 

The nearest English station is 4, GOO miles distant from San 
Francisco; the nearest French station is 3,600 miles distant; the 
nearest Spanish station is 4,700 miles distant, and will soon be re- 
moved, thank God, more than twice as far. Russia is 4,700 miles 
away, and Japan 4,500 miles away, while China is 5,500 miles from 
our coast. Take these islands into the Union and you will remove 



15 

other nations far from our door and insure more permanent peace 
and security. It was upon this theory that the old seers and prophets 
advocated annexation of contiguous territory as a peace proposi- 
tion; but it has been said by some opposed to annexation that the 
population is undesirable; possibly that may be so, but the same 
argument was used against the admission of California and Texas 
into the Union, but the undesirable element in both States was 
soon lost sight of in the sturdy immigration that stable govern- 
ment attracted, and so it will be with these islands. Strengthened 
by absorption into the Union, they will become attractive and 
inviting fields to American enterprise. 

The strategical importance of the islands has been attested by 
scientific, military, and naval experts without number, while the 
ripe testimony of Mahan. Schofield, and Belknap must be ac- 
cepted as of great value. Some concern has been manifested re- 
garding the character of the government to be established there. 
It will be such in my opinion as the wisdom of Congress may de- 
termine, and the power and authority of Congress in this regard 
has just received enlarged and high judicial sanction in the de- 
cision of Judge Morrow^ of the United States circuit court of Cali- 
fornia, which says: 

"Congress may legislate in accordance with the special needs 
of each locality and may vary its regulations to meet the circum- 
stances of the people. 

" The Territories of the United States are entirely subject to 
the legislative authority of Congress. They are not organized 
under'the Constitution, nor subject to its complex distribution of 
the powers of government as the organic law, but are the crea- 
tion, exclusively, of the legislative department, and subject to its 
supervision ancf control. 

" It may legislate in accordance with the special needs of each 
locality, and vary its regulations to meet the circumstances of the 
people." 

A hundred years ago it was predicted of our nation that it would 
some day stretch its arms upon two oceans, and direct the vessels 
from one to the other by an artificial route through Lake Nica- 
ragua that would change the course of the commercial world and 
the fate of empires. At such a time how important our action to- 
day may become and of what vital value the undisputed posses- 
sion of the Hawaiian Islands. 

Let us rise to the occasion to-day, meet this important exigency 
in our national affairs with courage and patriotism, and, inspired 
by the glorious achievements of the past, prepare for greater vic- 
tories in the years to come, and thus prove ourselves worthy the 
proud legacy fortune gave us by inheritance. Wave proudly and 
grandly, O flag of our country; from each of thy folds let some 
inspiration go - out to melt away prejudice and avoid friction; in 
each star let every republic find its hope and every empire see its 
duty! [Prolonged applause.] 

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